Electric-powered vehicles (electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles) each including a motor provided for traveling have a typical purpose of enhancing electrical power efficiency (traveling distance per unit electric power consumption) with the aim of enlarging a cruising range. One of the known methods for enhancing electrical power efficiency is to prohibit application of regenerative brake while the vehicle is coasting. This method suppresses deceleration of the coasting vehicle, resulting in elongating the coastable distance and thus, the electrical power efficiency can be enhanced.
Another known method for enhancing the electrical power efficiency is to reduce the amount of electric power consumed by an inverter provided for driving the motor. For example, there is a known method which shuts down the inverter when the vehicle is not moving due to traffic lights, thereby suppressing the electric power consumption. In addition, there is a proposed method which shuts down the inverter when the vehicle is directed to coast (freewheel) while traveling, and there is another proposed method which stops (shuts down) the electric supply for the inverter to cause the vehicle to coast if the velocity of the vehicle varies within a predetermined range for a predetermined period (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2006-42416 and 2014-79087). According to these methods, since the amount of electric power consumed by the inverter can be suppressed, the electrical power efficiency can be enhanced.